Abstract
M.A.
This study was prompted by the thousands of frustrated interracial couples who were either
compelled to hide their relationships or leave South Africa in order to get married or live
where interracial relationships and marriages were permitted. This pattern occurred during
the apartheid era, before the repeal of the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and Section 16
of the Immorality Act. After the repeal of these Acts, the number of interracial couples in
South Africa increased as indicated by Central Statistical Service figures for 1990, when 3
212 interracial marriages were reported. In April 1994 South Africa gained its first
Democratic Government leading to the investigator being encouraged to undertake this study.
In the study, the investigator explored patterns of family interaction in South African
interracial marriages. Eight married couples were interviewed for between 45 minutes to one
hour each, and the interviews were taperecorded. Three raters were used by the investigator
to score the taped interviews.
Couples seemed to feel that more than any other factor, they had become involved because
they loved each other. They seemed to have developed their own style of communication
since both verbal and non-verbal acts were seldom misinterpreted by them. Given the past
political situation in South Africa, these couples seemed to have developed a closer bond. On
the other hand, these couples exhibited the fact that interracial marriages are in most respects
like other marriages in terms of their dynamics
Three male adolescent children of the interracial couples were also asked to comp) .-,e the
Family Functioning in Adolescence Questionnaire. Two adolescents identified with tl -,.. value
systems of their parents, while one adolescent disagreed with his parents' value system.